MASON, Tennessee — The Ford Automotive company’s partnership with SK for the Blue Oval City project, which is expected to open in 2025, costs $5.6 billion, bringing 6,000 jobs to the area. It will sit on 3,600 acres of land in Stanton, Tennessee, just outside Memphis.
It is the company’s first mega campus here in Tennessee that will be electric, so people in the area who own land, including farmers, are setting themselves up for success, in case Ford or any other company wants to build on their land in the future.
Monday, June 26, the Black Farmer’s Agriculturalists Association is had a free conference to talk about how people can benefit from the opportunities that this new project will bring.
We spoke with two Black farmers who own land in Tennessee and they are actually excited about the opportunities, not just for them and their families, but for other people who have land.
“Ford has taken us out of the cotton business and put us in the automobile industry, depending on how we look at these opportunities,” Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association President Thomas Burrell said.
The Black Farmers Association encourages landowners to develop their land instead of selling it, highlighting the advantages of ownership.
“We want to make sure our land, our resources, the land from our members will lend itself to be a part of this boom, this blessing. We want to incorporate it, if necessary so we can collaborate,” Burrell added. “We want to be able to be a partner and not a victim. We want to share in the $5.6 billion.”
The first step, is making sure the land is incorporated, something that Terrance Cannon knows all about.
He is a second-generation farmer whose father bought 100 acres of land south of I-40, and paid it off within five years, and then bought more land nearby.
It is part of a family incorporation, so they can take advantage of the tax and financial benefits that come from governing the land as a business.
Right now, soybeans are growing on the land, but Cannon said when the right opportunity comes along, they are prepared to pivot.
“It was my father’s dream, as well as my late brother, Dr. Jessie Cannon Jr. to have the land incorporated because they saw this day coming years ago, Cannon said. “Now it is up on us. All of my neighbors adjacent to this property, we are collaborating, and we are cooperating.”
Cannon added that they have had conversations about developing their land to meet the future needs of the automotive industry.
“Ford, Blue Oval, SK, Bosch Battery Plant, the suppliers. We want to look at what they need and develop our properties, centered around the growth of the electric automotive vehicle plant. That is basically why we want to collaborate,” Cannon said.
Now that automotive companies like Ford, Nissan, Toyota, etc. are moving more to the south, The Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association, which has advocated for Black farmers and landowners on the local and national scene for more than 25 years, wants to educate other people who own land about their rights and how to prepare.
“If we collaborate, if we incorporate, we will be able to incorporate generational wealth. Historically, in our community, we own about 4 to 5 million acres of land. That is roughly the equivalent of $25 billion to $40 billion with a ‘b’…most of that land is paid for,” Burrell said.